Episode 9.9

“Holy Terror” ReviewBy Annie Kenney

‘Oh no they killed Kevin!’

I am still reeling after this episode; I’ve watched it twice and I even had a dream about it. I can’t recall being so moved or so excited by a cliff-hanger episode of Supernatural for quite some time and I’m not sure I can make it through Christmas and half way into January without some sort of meltdown.

So, from the above, you might realise that I really loved this episode. It had so many twists, turns and ‘Oh No’ moments that it was hard to know just what was going to happen next.

The warring angels were cool; particularly liked the Glee Club ladies in their pink shrugs and virgin white taking on the biker gang. Their exit in blood splattered clothing was suitably creepy and set the scene for what was to come.

So many brother moments; the scene in the car was both touching and claustrophobic and Sam’s confusion was palpable. Looking back on that scene now you keep questioning yourself ‘was that REALLY Sam?’ At the time I thought it was but now I’m still not sure. Kudos to Jared in this episode, he was absolutely fantastic. The fact that you believe Ezekiel and then Gadriel is actually there inside of Sam is testament to how good Jared is. At one point he is one angel pretending to be another and then he is Sam again. You certainly don’t expect this quality of acting on TV normally but on Supernatural we are fortunate to get it every single week.

It was nice to see Metatron again. This character is excellent and his bumbling manner belies the fact that he is sneaky and contriving. He reminds me of an angelic Crowley and that isn’t a bad thing!

When Metatron faced up to possessed Sam my heart was in my mouth. For weeks now I’ve been suspicious of Zeke’s motives but to find out that Zeke isn’t actually Zeke and is some angel called Gadriel was a total and utter shock. You could hear jaws dropping all around the world!

On the subject of Gadriel – look him up on Wikipedia. When I did my jaw dropped even further! I won’t give the game away here but it looks as if show may be harking back to its roots in a big, big way.

I also really liked Castiel in this episode; his appearance as an FBI agent (I still have the badge you gave me) was actually very funny and it was lovely to see the boys interacting with him again. His appearance also spurred Dean to FINALLY confront the angel he still thought was Zeke. Let’s face it this confrontation was extremely overdue. He’s been inside of Sam for nine weeks and Sam is still not totally healed. I was certainly questioning it so Dean must have been.

Seeing Castiel take his grace back was very satisfying. His bumbling human shtick never appealed to me and he works better as an angel (in my opinion). I like the fact that all the other angels are after him and that they think he is important and that he has a working relationship with Metatron. I hope that the show continues to explore this avenue of possibility.

When Castiel calls Dean and drops the bombshell that Zeke isn’t actually Zeke my heart was in my mouth. I had no idea – at this point – that Sam wasn’t Sam and I was actually worrying how he was going to react when he found out that Dean had shoved an angel inside of him. Not only that but he had no idea who this angel actually was. (Supernatural you are trying to kill me). Knowing Sam it was easy to see that this was not going to end well (and it certainly didn’t!).

When Metatron gave Gadriel the piece of paper I was convinced it had either Castiel’s or Dean’s name on it. Gadriel’s pain was easy to read and I actually felt a stab of sympathy for him (and again Jared was so good, good enough for me to believe there were two people in there). I have no idea what Metatron is up to but I certainly don’t trust him and I’m not sure Gadriel should either. He is clearly being tricked by Metatron in the same way Castiel was and it makes me wonder if Metatron is going to use Gadriel to kill off all of his perceived enemies.

So here we are in the final act and the awful, unexpected and totally upsetting death of Kevin Tran. It came as a total and utter bolt out of the blue and it was something I don’t think many people could have seen coming.

Over the last few seasons Kevin has become a likeable ally for the Winchesters and Osric Chau has really grown into the role. He turned from nervous scholar to nervous prophet and made Kevin a totally believable character. The shame is that Kevin seemed to bond with Sam more than Dean so to make Sam the object of his death was even more tragic. How many more of the regular characters are going to die? Will Kevin come back? These are questions that I won’t even attempt to answer. I can never second guess Supernatural and that is what makes it so damn awesome.

So Sam/Gadriel has made off with the tablets and is, no doubt, taking them to Metatron. Castiel has his grace back and Dean, Dean is in a very bad place right now, guilty about Kevin’s death and guilty about what has happened to Sam. Dean has lost his brother and this is never a good thing. As a brother fan I was heartbroken to see them separated again and in such a way. How are they going to resolve this and how can we possibly wait so long to find out?

This was what a midseason cliff-hanger should be. So many questions and not many answers but it does give lot of scope for awesome storylines when the show returns next year.